Uganda and Rwanda

Just over a year ago I got on a plane from Entebbe airport to return to the UK after living in Uganda during my gap year in 2012 and 2013... And now, over the past 3 weeks, I've had the incredible blessing of being able to return to Uganda. Living 4000 miles away from most of my best friends over the past year has been really difficult, but I praise God that we have been able to maintain relationships during that time and that he has provided for me to cross borders so that we could come together again. My prayer and hope is that this is just the first of many returning trips to my 'African Home'. 

I flew with Esther, but we stayed in Kampala separately with local friends. We spent the first week catching up with friends and visiting projects that I used to be a part of such as Goshem school in Kuffu where we used to live and teach, the Smile Farm, and Blessed Word of Life Church among other things. Seeing the progress in that building project was incredible and looking at the almost completed building, I felt really proud to know that I quite literally helped to lay the foundations there a couple of years ago!
Visiting Goshem was equally special, especially as the kids didn't know that we were coming back. It was great to see that many of them have now progressed to the next class and to remind them that we still think and care about them.

P3 class at Goshem School

After a week, an impressive number of people from Kampala traveled to Kigali in Rwanda to celebrate the wedding of Alex - the project manager of Smile Charity Uganda. I took a 12 hour bus trip with Brian; leaving Uganda for the first time in his life... It was a blessing to be able to share the experience with him and although I had been dreading such a long journey we actually had a lot of fun. We met up with friends from Kampala when we reached Kigali and a big group of us stayed at Angello's Uncle's house. We had such a brilliant time - it was nice that everyone was away from their normal work and routine so we all just enjoyed being on holiday together.

Travelling to Rwanda

With friends in Rwanda

On the Friday evening we went to a concert by a worship group from Kampala called 'VOW' (once we eventually found where it was!) It was such good fun, especially at the end when they sang a kiganda song and I got to show off my 'skills' in dancing the traditional kiganda dance (...kind of!). We also enjoyed a performance from the LT Warriors dance group.

The wedding was the next day and it was absolutely beautiful. We had fun dressing up together and then we took bodas to the wedding ... doing your hair and then getting on a motorbike (which in Kigali, involves wearing a helmet) probably isn't the best idea, but it was the only way to get there in time and was good fun!
It was so special to see Alex finally getting married and I felt so proud to be there and so happy for him. 

Alex and Beni's Wedding

The next day we attended a local church where someone kindly translated from Kinyarwanda to English and Luganda for us, and also for another visitor who spoke French... I think we counted 5 different languages that she was able to speak! Church was great fun, but I had to leave early with Marina and Brian to take Joe to the airport as he was returning to UK after almost 3 months in East Africa... it was really sad to see him go.

Angello and Brian in Kigali

Marina, Brian, Angello and I left very early on Monday morning to travel back to Kampala. Again, the journey was enjoyable and I had no trouble getting a visa at the border; the guy who served me asked how long I was staying in Uganda for and then told me that I should stay for longer so he gave me a visa for 2 months (Don't tempt me!!!)

Over the next few days we all just made the most of our time together. It was really special to spend time with Brian and Terry's daughter; Berindah who I used to look after a lot. Even after being away for a whole year of her short life, it was amazing that seemed to remember me and was incredible to see how we were able to communicate now that she can talk... she's a bright girl, so when she used a luganda word that I didn't understand she would find a way to teach me. I also got to meet her baby sister Breanna who was born in October.

With Berindah

I can't write about everything that I did because this blog would go on forever, but let me just say that this week has been absolutely beautiful and I will treasure the memories.

Its hard to describe the way that Uganda holds my heart. I was worried that this trip would be difficult because I wasn't there with Smile and because everything was so different from my gap year, but if its even possible, over the past weeks Uganda has become even more rooted in my heart. It is the home of some of my best friends, and although I have a family and a home in UK too, I'm so blessed that I also have a home in Uganda.

SPREE

With 2 days to go until I fly to Uganda, I've managed to misplace my voice...

This weekend I was at 'Spree' - an event run by Urban Saints that we took some young people to. It was brilliant and was great that as leaders we didn't have to worry about organising and  running it! We spent most of Saturday in the swimming pool, with general swimming before lunch, and water polo afterwards! The young people then took part in a massive water fight and had a go on a big outdoors water slide. It was really good to get to meet some people from different backgrounds and lots of people who had come over from the mainland (that's exciting news to islanders!) and for all of our young people to mix with other Christians their age, hear some teaching and share in worship together.

Water Polo at Spree

For the rest of the week I've been preparing to leave for Uganda for the next couple of weeks. I've trained up a couple of my helpers to lead Rock Solid whilst I'm away, and tried to get everything organised for the upcoming events that we're inviting our young people to. I also helped out at toddler group again this week (I thought I was a 'youth' worker?!) and 'all the rest' that's not really worth blogging about...

So tomorrow I leave the island ready to fly out to Uganda on Tuesday! I'm not sure yet whether I'll get a chance to write a blog whilst I'm there, but I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures. I'm so excited to see everyone that I haven't seen in over a year, to hopefully visit one of the schools that we used to teach at and to watch Alex and Beni get married. Its also a bit scary though because a lot will have changed in the past year, so I'm anxious to see how my relationships with lots of people will be different and how it will feel to be back in Uganda again. And I'm hoping that my voice will return soon! Prayer would be much appreciated for that, and for good health in general, also for safety and most importantly that God's purpose for this trip would prevail :)

Thanks :)

Looking Ahead

There's so much that I could write about this week...
I've had a great week on the island including a trip to the farm with our toddler group, the largest ever group at our Rock Solid club, some meetings about all sorts of exciting things, a few meals with friends, my highest ever grade for an essay and our best ever position in the pub quiz - we only came joint last this week!
Things here on the island are going really well at the moment and I'm excited to see what God will do over the Summer and next year.

On Friday I left the island and picked up Esther so that we could leave early the next morning for GoFest - A Christian festival all about mission. Despite getting very lost on the way there (I blame the satnav!), we had a good time and got to speak to some great people who have some fantastic stories and experiences. It was really helpful for me in starting to think about the next steps for me after completing my degree. In the late afternoon we decided to pay a surprise visit to Clare who had just arrived home from university. It was so lovely to see her and to all be together. We had a very special afternoon and evening catching up and sharing dinner with her fantastic family.

This is also quite a significant week for me because Tuesday will mark exactly a year since we left Uganda. My memories from my Gap year will always be very precious to me, but I've come to realize over the past year that whilst that particular season had to end, I'm been blessed to be able to carry forward friendships, experiences and lessons from that season and I know that Uganda will always hold a special place in my heart. So its with an awful lot of excitement that I'm now preparing to visit my friends in Uganda again next week! For me I hope that this will be the first of many returning trips to a place that feels very much like a home from home.

Do I really look 12?!

Once a month, a bunch of young people in Cowes run a really simple Saturday evening service with some worship and a talk. I love it. For one thing, its just nice to go to church without having any responsibilities, but aside from that, these young people are just fantastic! Its so exciting to see a bunch of people with such a passion for God, and already using and growing their gifts... I'd love to see what God has planned for them in the future! And of course, its just great to get to spend time worshiping God with other people who love him.

I'm also loving the fact that the sun is still out. I had a weird flashback the other night when I realised that I was sleeping without a duvet - something I only ever did in Uganda... it made me smile :)
...Well anyway, you'll be glad to hear that I didn't spend the whole week in bed thinking about Uganda! Aside from getting asked if I was in year 7 (That would make me 12!!!?!) when I was in school for a lunch club that we run on Friday, I also got thrashed in a pub quiz on Tuesday, made it down to the beach with a friend, read a grand total of 3 books in one week, and ran a youth club and a prayer walk among a several other bits.

Compton on Tuesday

So its been another pretty chilled out week, but its been good to spend time with a few different people; on the beach, in the park and most importantly, over plates of something yummy and edible!

I'm not good at doing nothing

I've had a pretty chilled out week this week.
We had our payer breakfast with the team from the Jubilee Training Center on Monday before they left to go back to the mainland. It was great spending some time with that team last weekend - apart from anything its just nice to have some new people my age on the island to get to know, but they were a great bunch of people - so passionate about God and about seeing his transformation among young people.

I've had a couple of usual youth groups this week and some meetings and bits, but I've still found myself having what feels like more time on my hands than usual - something I'm definitely not used to, so I actually really missed going to Moorlands on Tuesday! Over the rest of the week I decided that I would try to make better use of my free time. I've been for a couple of walks by the coast - I sat and watched people paddle-boarding the other day - silhouetted against the sunset which was beautiful. I've spent time reading and I've had some time to just chill with God. I've also spent time with friends; in person on the island (usually with either food or tea involved!) and on Skype and the phone to those further away.



On Saturday, Pete and I took to the water again in the sea kayaks. We paddled around some of the East of the island, and Pete challenged me to paddle all the way around the island over the next couple of years while I'm living with him and his family. Whilst we were out, we got caught in a spot of torrential rain which was fun! It was amazing to be on the water while it was raining so heavily, and to watch all the rain drops bouncing off the surface of the water.



So I guess that this week I've been learning to relax, and to "Be still and know that I am God". I'm not very good at doing nothing, but I think that God wants me to remember to rest in him.

Hello Sun

Over the past couple of weeks I've had the joy of getting to see lots of friends from lots of different places. I went home last week as I had no youth groups over half term. Its always a blessing to get to spend lots of time with my family and to see some friends from home that I don't see very often.

At home with the family :)

Unfortunately, holidays never last forever and I was reluctant to get back on the ferry on Sunday evening... but God's been blessing me this week too :)

I had a spontaneous visit on Wednesday from Esther and a couple of her friends who wanted to see the island. It was so lovely to see Esther, and was also great to meet some new people. We had a picnic on the beach and a very yummy cream tea too!

With Esther

On Friday I had the challenge of cooking for 25 people as we've had a mission team from the Jubilee Training Centre (all the way from the Mainland!!!) on the island this weekend they all came along to help us to run our 'Emerge' youth event. Well dinner went well, and Emerge was even better! I loved having the opportunity to meet new people and we had a brilliant evening worshiping God with a bunch of brilliant young people.

This morning, I had the privilege of leading a group of young people in leading our service at church. It was themed around worship and it was so brilliant to see these young people sharing their stories, their faith and their gifts with the rest of the church. It made me very proud! Later on we all walked up to a big BBQ put on by the team from Jubilee. We had a great afternoon playing games in the sunshine. 

We wandered back down to Newport I had a chat with one of my best friends on the phone from Uganda; a blessing its very difficult to ever take for granted!

If you fancy a few more juicy details about my youth work, I keep another blog here so please have a read of that too!

Love that changes things

Well it seems that the sunshine from last week was short lived, but that hasn't stopped too much here. I've had all the usual activities and meetings, and I'm still enjoying the novelty of having no essays to write! 

We were planning a scavenger hunt on Thursday with my Rock Solid youth group and another local youth group. Despite the forecast, I was feeling relatively hopeful until I looked out the window about an hour before we were due to start and saw a huge black cloud stretching as far as I could see! We decided to postpone the scavenger hunt but we joined up with Newport Rock Solid to play some games together instead.

This Friday we held a youth event called Catalyst which was themed around peer pressure. It was our first Friday event in almost a month so it was great to get together again with the team and loads of young people to worship God.

I read a brilliant article today called "The wrong way to approach the poor". It's something I totally agree with, and something I wish I was a lot better at. Truly helping people takes humility and a willingness to make yourself vulnerable to people. The moment when we can really start to make a difference to people is when we stop defining people by the poverty they are living in, and start opening ourselves up to individuals as equals and as friends with whom we can work together to make a difference.

I'm not just thinking of overseas "mission work" though, I see the same thing in my work with young people here. You stand very little chance of making any change in a young person's life unless you're willing to build relationships. As a Christian, the main thing that I am called to do is to love. Now, love demands personal investment, but it also makes a big difference. So if we ever want to make any real difference to anyone, we have to be willing to make it personal. Treating someone as a statistic is never going to amount to much, but get involved in their life, and you might just get to be a part of something spectacular.